


more than a thousand years

by patriciaselina



Series: The Parallelism Project [1]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers, Tiger & Bunny
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-06
Updated: 2012-01-06
Packaged: 2017-10-29 01:30:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/314372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/patriciaselina/pseuds/patriciaselina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Crossover of the PYFU-verse with T&B. One day, the Ancient Roman Empire’s ghost gets lost on the way to Italy. One day, a different ghost haunts Yuri Petrov’s consciousness, and all he can do is shut up and listen. This is what happens.</p>
            </blockquote>





	more than a thousand years

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Mostly dependent on frostywine’s (LJ)/oimagoturpis’ (tumblr) Put Your Feet Up-verse. There is an OC with a fan-made name, there is Rome’s fanon name, there are mistakes in grammar and spelling, there is a very OOC Yuri who just wants a father figure.

Once upon a time, there was an empire that spanned continents and crossed the seas.

Once upon a time, there were two trusted advisors and a woman he had once wooed.

Once upon a time, there were two children with his hair and their mother’s eyes.

Once upon a time, he had the most beautiful being that ever walked the cosmos, his own personal goddess.

Once upon a time, for once in his life, he was happy.

And the fairytale ends.

===

Since his father’s death, Yuri had thought himself one used to seeing ghosts. The ghost of Mr. Legend followed him day in and day out, telling him to work for justice and deplete the world of crime. So he should not be surprised to see a shimmering image of - someone - by his tea set, even if his tea set was in his secret dungeon that really, nobody was supposed to know of.

But Yuri Petrov is also very sure that this man is not his father.

He has a more slender physique, for starters; broad shoulders and stocky body but no bulging belly like his father had. His hair is chocolate where his father’s had been ivory. His eyes are brown, but shine golden in the dull artificial lights.

(Almost like Kaburagi’s, he remembers. And forgets.)

There are trails of stubble on the man’s face that are unlike the trails of his father’s beard. And in place of his father’s Hero suit, this man is wearing, strangely enough, the clothing of a high-ranking ancient Roman soldier.

After determining all this, Yuri breaks into the other man’s - the ghost’s - reverie by finally talking. “Who are you and what are you doing,” he begins, one hand twitching for a crossbow that is not there (yet), the other glinting with blue-green sparks.

The old man sees him and actually has the nerve to look embarrassed. “Oh! Well, you see, I had told the boss to let me see my son, but it seems He had mixed me up with someone else…”

“You’re not my father,” Yuri says, curtly. His one hand finally wraps over his trusty crossbow, and his other hand bursts into flame.

Not that the ghost had noticed, however. Raising one eyebrow, the brunet said, “And you’re not my son. Excuse me if I’m wrong, but I did not raise either of my sons to grow up looking like a girl.”

The crossbow is raised now, blue-green flames lighting up the dark. Yuri gives himself space to relish the way the ghost raises his hands in surrender. “Your name. If you do not give it, you will have to answer to the flames of Thanatos.”

“Merciful Jupiter! Thanatos? So Phoemie did send someone after me, after all!” The older man says, embarrassed and indignant. “Okay, okay. Allow me to introduce myself,” he says, giving Yuri a small gesture of respect. “Representing the Roman Empire, Blandus Maximus Caelius Pulcher.”

The crossbow falters, but only a little. “The Roman Empire? But how?”

“Let’s just say that I represent the Roman Empire just as much as you may represent Thanatos, if Euphy really did send you after me.” He sits down with a self-depreciating laugh. “Or at least, that’s how I used to represent it, boy; the next thing you need to know about me is that I’m dead. But of course you can already see that.”

Yuri sits down on the chair across from the ghost - the Roman Empire, he amends skeptically - and sighs. If Mr. Legend was not going to show up and tell him to eviscerate the trespassing idiot, what was the use of staying on edge? His one hand stayed on his crossbow, however, poised and ready.

“You never did tell me your name, boy.”

“I’m not a boy, Rome, I’m a man.” Yuri says thoughtlessly, as if he was talking to an insufferable idiot (say, Kaburagi, who his mind keeps returning to), but then again, who better to tell secrets to than ghosts? “A man by the name of Yuri Petrov, if that makes any difference.”

“Yuri. Lovely name for a woman, I say-“

“Are you here to figure out your problem, or to make me solve the problem that is you once and for all, Rome?”

“Fine, fine. No more wrong-gendered jokes.” Caelius always did think fast. “What I will ask you is where am I, and how far this would happen to be from Italy.” Faced with Yuri’s steady gaze, he finds himself wanting to divulge the truth. “Lovino and Feliciano are there - my sons, the ones my boss mistook for you? Although I have no idea why, since you look nothing like them.”

For a moment, Yuri pauses. He wonders what kind of a father this “Roman Empire” man was - is. Did he also possess his children to do heinous deeds in his name?

No, no. They were not heinous deeds. They were the manifestation of justice.

(Or so he keeps reminding himself.)

“You are in Sternbild,” he says as he pours them a cup of tea each. “You have to go to Rome either by plane or by boat. Now, before you leave, here, you can have some tea-“

“That was really kind of you, boy, but I don’t think I’ll be leaving yet. Wrong message recipient, y’know? I gotta stay put until He fixes this up. And I will have some tea, thanks.”

Yuri adds honey to his cup, and sighs at the thought of having to spend a longer time than he expected with this strange man. They sip both their cups in silence.

Caelius is the first one to speak.

“Hey, you want to know how this old man died?”

He’s pretty sure that whatever-it-is would still be better than the story of a boy that burned his own father, so Yuri actually shows interest. “Enlighten me, then.”

“I had a wife, you see,” And Caelius raises his hand, the one with the gold band his gaze keeps returning to. “Smart and brave and extremely beautiful. Like, think of the most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen. And multiply her beauty by the highest number you’ve ever known. That was my Maria.”

Yuri’s one hand strays away from his crossbow, joining its partner to cradle his face. Did his father ever talk about his mother like this before? He finds himself suddenly envying the Lovino and Feliciano this man had fathered.

“But well, you see, as she represented Hispania Tarraconensis as I did the Roman Empire, when troops descended upon her-” The Roman Empire’s hands balled into fists, and Yuri found himself irrationally scared. Wasn’t Yuri the one with the weapon? “You know what happened next.”

And Yuri does, from history classes he took long ago. After the demise of the beloved capital, the Ancient Roman Empire battled its enemies in a frenzied rush, which led to its own dissolution-

“Maria’d been such a good girl to the boss, that He’d had reincarnated her some centuries ago. I’ve seen her from up there, representing a small Asian archipelago called the Philippines.” A small smile graces Rome’s face, sullen and sad. “Still such a beautiful lady. She’s got the men around her on her feet.”

“Doesn’t that anger you?” Yuri says, his voice and his words weird, even to himself.

“What angers me?”

“That she’s moved on. That you still remember her, and she does not and is moving on-” It sort of reminds him of his father - how he died knowing everything and how his mother was left knowing nothing. How could the ghost not be angry?

A slow, self-depreciating laugh. “Yuri, my boy, you have obviously never been in love, have you?”

Well, that at least was true.

“Let me put it this way,” The ghost begins, in the tone of one not used to explaining himself. “I don’t know how you guys see it over here, but for me, reincarnation is a way of redeeming yourself. Like a way of seeing, how would my life be, had I not done this? But of course you don’t know about your past life, so it could also be the same soul in different bodies, repeating the same mistake over and over again.”

“I’m okay with the men around Maria because who knows; maybe one of them is the one she’s meant for? Even if it hurts me. For all I know, loving me was her only mistake. It was what killed her,” He downs the cold tea in one go, willing himself not to cry in front of this young man. “And I don’t want that to happen again, y’know?”

And again, Yuri remembers Kaburagi, with the dark hair and bright eyes and tan skin. His powers had decreased, like Yuri’s father’s powers had, but he had not been driven to insanity and/or abuse. Wild Tiger did not repeat Mr. Legend’s mistakes – was that what a reincarnation would be like?

(There was also the matter of the blond pudding-stealing heterosexual life partner Kaburagi had, but he was not quite sure how that would apply to Rome’s situation.)

“So I’m happy, seeing her happy with America and England and Mexico and all those young men drawn to her like a spell - even Spain, gods, how did Spain become her father in this new life, when she was his first love in our last - because I can see that she can be happy without me. That she  _will_  be happy without me.”

“The boss told me that after waiting for so long, He’d grant me the wish I longed for the most. I told Him I’d want to see my sons’ faces first before I decide on it,” Caelius shakes his head.  “There’s no use in ‘thinking about it’ any longer, though, since I’ve already decided. I wish that Maria will forget about me for all eternity.”

The ghost suddenly hears something in the distance, and Yuri knows this because his ears perk up and his eyes widen. “I guess that’s the boss. Thanks for the tea, Yuri.”

Yuri does not know why he stands as the other man turns away, calling after him. “Wait a minute.”

The fallen Roman Empire looks at Yuri in the way he’s always wanted his father to look at him. “What is it, m’boy?”

For once, Yuri decides to let the ghost’s calling him ‘boy’ slide. “I wish you’d be true to yourself for a change.”

“Oh?” Rome raises an eyebrow, giving him a silly smile that the judge has seen on someone else before. “What makes you say that, Yuri Petrov?”

“You just remind me of someone I know,” Kaburagi’s smiling face comes to mind, and so does Wild Tiger’s face when he sees Lunatic. “And I wish he does the same thing too.”

Caelius turns around again, one hand on his hip as he walks away. “Well, your friend’s lucky to have you.”

Yuri’s “He’s not my-” is cut off by some kind of sonic boom that swallows up the ghost of the Roman Empire. And he’s back where it all began, alone in his dungeon again.

As Yuri takes the other man’s empty teacup, he mutters forlornly to himself. “Old man, I wish that you be happy.”

Mr. Legend does not come to haunt him that night, or any of the nights after.

=

The next time they meet, he has just finished a case (another one of Tiger’s more amusing damage settlements), and is about to get lunch. That is when he sees it.

There are two men, one blond and the other brunette, with a copper-haired woman in-between, her arms around their elbows. The two men look flabbergasted, and the woman delighted. When they turn to the couple in front of them, they smile, and when Yuri realizes who the couple is, he follows suit.

The man is the ghost who drank tea in his dungeon; of that alone he is sure. Only with a formal suit and glasses in place of his ancient attire, and his gaze soft and serene as they look down on the woman in front of him.

He does not get a clear look on the woman’s face, but from the way Rome is looking at her as if the world around them has ceased to exist, Yuri deduces that this would be Maria.

As he moves to leave, however, Rome spots him, and smiles, mouthing:

 _Thank you._

Yuri flushes a little, turns away, and thinks to himself:  _so this is what redemption feels like_.

He also wishes, if someone still listens to him, that this family would find each other. That this family will never lose each other again.

He doesn’t want the boys named Lovino and Feliciano to grow up chasing ghosts like he did.

===

 _fin._

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Two thousand-plus words for a blitzfic typed on my cellphone while waiting for New Year’s ham to fry. Nice one, self.
> 
> Since I can’t exactly send a parcel to Ate Chay with my current condition, here’s your belated Christmas/Saturnalia/New Year present! Ever since you said you liked Lunatic, I’ve always wanted to write him with your favorite Ancient Roman. I could never comprehend why, but the idea never left me and so here it is. I typed it on my phone in the middle of waiting for media noche, lol. XD
> 
> The title comes from Christina Perri’s “A Thousand Years”, which sort of remind me how I think Rome was feeling at the time. Angst flavored with selfless love, yum. >_> Yuri’s state of mind kind of reminds me of Marianas Trench’s “Masterpiece Theatre 3”, however – it’s jumbled and rather nonsensical, but it reminds me of Yuri and his father…and to a lesser degree, Kotetsu and Barnaby, who my Yuri keeps comparing to Caelius and Maria. (Hey, that sounds interesting – wait WHAT.)
> 
> You can say this is my New Year’s piece, then, so Happy New Year, everybody! ^^ It’s supposed to be a crossover, but it more of became like Caelius’ rant while Yuri sits back and thinks of how life would be had his father loved his family like Caelius does his. So yeah, that. Hope you liked it, though! \o/


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